The present invention relates to a belt buckle, and more particularly, to an inward-wind type belt buckle through which a rear end portion of the belt is wound between the front end portion of the belt and the clothes.
Belt buckles have a main function of steadily fixing clothes, especially trousers, to its user to thereby remove any uncomfortable factors in usersxe2x80x2 activities, as well as an additional function of satisfying aesthetic taste of the users.
Belt buckles in a variety of forms having such functions are in use.
With respect to the conventional belt buckles, the rear end portion of a belt is mostly wound outwardly of the front end portion of the belt that is fixed at the belt buckle, so that the rear end portion, that is, the end portion of the belt is off from the clothes, which is not good in its appearance and apt to be touched by cuffs of jackets or taken by any objects when users are walking.
In order to solve the problems, Korean Patent Laid Open No. 1996-000111 (Publication date: Jan. 25, 1996), a former application of the applicant of this application, proposes an inward-wind type belt buckle that a rear end portion of a belt is wound between a front end portion and the clothes.
The inward-wind type belt buckle is made by an upper and a lower channel in a hexahedral shape forming a passage through which the rear end portion of the belt passes. The marginal portions of a plate body are bent to form the side walls having a predetermined height, and the lower end portions of each wall is attached to a lower channel in a plate form by welding to form a belt passage therebetween. A cut-out portion is formed at one side of the bottom of the lower channel through which a rear end portion of the belt passes.
Accordingly, when the user wears the belt, since the rear end portion of the belt is inserted into the internal passage of the buckle in the plate form and positioned between the front end portion of the belt and the clothes after passing through the cut-out portion, it is not exposed.
In addition, serrated hooking grooves are formed at regular intervals at the inner face of the lower channel and a hook is protrusively formed upwardly at the entrance of the lower channel of the buckle so as to be hooked by a hooking hole of the belt, so that when the rear end portion of the belt is inserted into the internal passage of the belt buckle, the hook of the buckle is inserted into the hooking hole of the belt readily and fixedly.
That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, hinge pins 31 formed at both sides of a fixture 30 is inserted into the hinge holes 22 formed at the side walls 21 of the upper channel 20 of the belt buckle so as for the fixture 30 to be rotatable, and the serrated portion 32 provided to the fixture 30 is in mesh with the front end portion of the belt and attaches it to the bottom of the upper channel 20 of the belt buckle, thereby fixing the belt.
However, this kind of belt buckle has the following problems. That is, since the hinge pins 31 of the fixture 30 are exposed outwardly through the hinge holes 21 of the belt buckle, resulting in that the hinge pins 31 of the fixture 30 exposed outwardly may contact the skin of the user to hurt or clothes may be caught on the hinge pins to be torn off, and thus, its appearance is not satisfied.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a belt buckle of which hinge pins of a fixture for fixing a front end portion of a belt to a belt buckle are not exposed outwardly, thereby improving a stability in wearing it.
In order to achieve the above objects, there is provided a belt buckle including: a buckle body having a lower plate with a cut-out portion at the central portion thereof and side walls formed bent to have a predetermined height in the lengthy direction at both sides thereof and a front plate integrally attached to the upper portion of the side wall of a lower body to thereby form a belt passage therebetween; a fixture having a serrated portion at one end portion thereof and hinge pins at the both end portions of the serrated portion; and a fixing piece for fixing the fixture to the inner side wall of the lower plate.
At the lower plate of the buckle body, a position fixing hook is upward-protrusively formed at the front side on the basis of the cut-out portion for passing a belt, and at the rear side of the lower plate, a fixing hole is formed to be combined with the bottom plate of the fixing piece inserted to the side wall of the lower body.
The fixing piece includes a bottom plate tightly to be fixed at the upper surface of the lower plate at the rear side of the buckle body and having a fixing hole formed at its central portion corresponding to the fixing hole formed at the lower plate of the lower body, and side walls formed bent at the both sides of the bottom plate, with a predetermined height.
The side wall of the fixing piece includes an extended end portion at the rear side thereof, going off from the bottom plate. The extended end portion includes a fixing groove at its lower side to which a hinge pin of the fixture. In a state that the hinge pins of the fixture are inserted into the fixing grooves formed at the side walls of the fixing piece, when the fixing piece is inserted to the side walls of the lower body, the hinge pins of the fixture are shut between the marginal portion of the cut-out portion formed at the bottom plate of the lower body, that is, the support marginal portion formed at the region where the side walls of the lower plate and the upper surface of the lower plate and the fixing grooves formed at the extended end portion of the fixing piece, according to which the fixture is rotatable on the hinge pins.
Instead of the fixing grooves formed at the extended end portions of the side walls of the fixing piece, fixing holes may be formed, and in a state that the hinge pins of the fixture are inserted into the fixing holes, the fixing piece can be combined with the inner side of the side walls of the belt buckle.
In accordance with the other embodiment of the present invention, the side walls of the fixing piece contacting the inner side of the side walls of the lower body are bent inwardly to form a fixing protrusion, and the fixing protrusion includes fixing holes into which the hinge pins of the fixture are inserted, thereby combining the fixture with the buckle body.